How Microsoft wants us all to get creative with Artificial Intelligence

It is hardly surprising that Artificial Intelligence was a major focus of Microsoft's Build 2017 conference. In fact, given the rapid advancements in all areas of AI technology and the raging debates about if – or rather, when – robots will take over our jobs, it would be surprising if one of the world's biggest technology companies weren't thinking about these problems in a big way. When Harry Shum – Executive Vice President of Microsoft's AI and Research group – took to the main stage on Monday, he talked about how soon it will be almost impossible to imagine a technology that doesn't tap into the power of AI in one way or another. What made this possible, he continued, was the convergence of three forces – increased cloud computing power, algorithms running off deep neural networks, and access to massive datasets. This means that AI does indeed have the potential to disturb every single industry and process out there.